


Fire Watching

by april_snakehole



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5894245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/april_snakehole/pseuds/april_snakehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James and Lily have a conversation at the end of fifth year, after the incident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire Watching

The end of fifth year was difficult for James Potter. He was humiliated, and it wasn’t an emotion he wore well. There were only a five days between the incident at the lake and the end of term, but for James it felt like forever.

Evans had been sending him absolutely murderous looks whenever they made eye contact and when they didn’t, James had to see her looking devastated because that git Snape had, predictably, been a git. They had been friends, because Lily was too nice, and now, because of James, they were not.

He felt guilty, but it was mixed with equal parts sick joy and worry. He was sorry that she lost a friend, happy that she had come out of their spat not unhurt, and worried that she would go back to Snape, even after he had called her such an awful thing.

James had never liked the boy. Snape had always been cruel to him and his friends, and this hadn’t been the first time that they had thrown curses at each other or dueled. The year before, Peter had had to go to the hospital wing for a wound that wouldn’t close.

Snape knocked Sirius’ front teeth out with a curse; Sirius, in kind, had knocked a few of Snape’s out with his fist. James had gotten a good jump on the git, this time, but he’d been ugly, he knew. He’d been showboating, and it had backfired.

James was worried, too, that his own friendship with Lily, however perilous it had always been, was now ruined.

“She’ll come around,” Sirius told him flippantly one day after one of Lily’s more dramatic exits upon seeing James.

“She might not,” Remus said quietly. He shrugged apologetically when James shot him a look.

“Well fuck, Moony, don’t tell him that,” Sirius said under his breath.

“There are loads of girls at Hogwarts,” Peter said quickly. “Plenty of them fancy you, probably. I overheard Noelle Sprink saying she thought you quite fit.”

“He doesn’t want nasty Noelle, he wants,” Sirius batted his eyelashes and raised his voice to a breathy, silly pitch, “Lily Rachel Evans.”

“Sod off,” James said gruffly, and took his leave of his useless friends.

Two days before the end of term, James went for a fly around the Quidditch pitch to clear his head. It was late, but armed with a warning from Remus, the cloak, and the map, James wasn’t too worried. When he slipped into the Common Room in the early morning hours, he found Lily sitting, alone, staring into the fire.

He considered his options before quietly slipping the cloak off and into his pocket. He walked over to her, hands in his pockets, but didn’t sit down. She didn’t look up.

“I’m really sorry, you know,” he said quietly. He didn’t have to explain for what he was sorry for—though he realized there were probably plenty of things for which he could apologize to her.

She kept her eyes trained carefully ahead.

“I was a git. I am a git. And I’m sorry that he said all of that to you.”

She looked up finally. “It wasn’t your fault he said that,” she said quietly. “It was his.”

“Well, yeah, but I pushed him—“

“You didn’t push him to call me a Mudblood.”

James flinched at the word. He rubbed the back of his neck and replied, softly, “No, I suppose that I didn’t.”

She looked back at the fire. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear it, Potter, but you and he are fairly polar opposites. You’re a git about the stupid things and a hero about the important things, and he’s nice about stupid things and just fails so deeply at the important things.”

James cleared his throat, ears slightly pink at being called a hero. “I suppose you’ll… well… do you think you’ll forgive him?” 

“No,” she said quickly. “He’s chosen his path. And a mudblood friend who doesn’t believe in Dark Arts as a valid life choice won’t fit in well, I would guess.”

“You shouldn’t call yourself that word,” James said quietly. 

“I’ll call myself what I like, thanks.” The slight tenderness that had been in her voice was gone now, replaced with the steely quality with which she’d been addressing him since the day at the lake.

“Right, well. I just wanted to apologize. And ask how you’re doing. So I’ll be going. Leave you to your—er—fire watching.” 

Lily chuckled softly, looking back up to him with a small teasing smile. “Fire watching?”

“Well, what would you call it? Careful of your eyesight, don’t want you to have to get glasses like me.”

“I’ll just nick yours.”

“Merlin help you if you end up having eyesight as would fit my lenses,” he said solemnly.

“Are you going to ask me?”

James blanched. “Ask what?” The last time that he had asked her something had ended, to put it lightly, poorly.

“You asked if I would forgive him. Are you going to ask if I’ll ever forgive you?”

“Well, you did call me a hero, so—“

“Potter,” she warned.

“Right,” James said. This wasn’t the time for jokes. “Do you think you will ever forgive me?”

“Yes, in time,” she said quietly, eyes catching James’. “Just work on being kinder. You’re one of the good ones, James. And the way the world looks now, we’ll be needing… well…” she trailed off and snapped her head back forward to look at her fire. “Go away, curfew breaker. I’d like to go back to fire watching for awhile.”

“Goodnight, then, Evans.”

“Night, Potter.”


End file.
